Imperfect Image (Re-write)
by Ninjapotato
Summary: What happens when you have an OC with special powers named Reino as Nnoitora's second fraccione who falls in love, while Aizen forbids it because it goes against the status of the Arrancars' "Perfect, battle hardened warriors"? And how will her love and a ring both end and save her life? Rating will most likely change. OFFICIAL HIATUS
1. The Commencement

**Imperfect Image Chapter 1 (Re-write- from the second person, now in the third)**

**Basic Character Synopsis (BCS):** Reino, or "Rei" as she is called by many, is the 2nd fraccione of the 5th Espada, Nnoitora Jiruga. She is third "Grantz" family member, younger than IlForte yet older than Szayel Aporro (whom she calls Szayel), making her the middle child. She works with Szayel in his lab during her free time. He always preferred the fields of chemistry with chemicals and such, but Reino was always more fascinated by living creatures, so she took up the life sciences, specifically Human Biology (which she is equally adept at as her younger brother is to chemistry).

**Warnings: **Language, a bit of OOCness, violent thoughts

**Rating may (and probably will) change!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, nor will I ever in the future. If you think I do own it, then you are probably not the brightest light bulb. Why would I write fan fiction if could write this crap in the actual storyline?! But anyways, the only thing I own is the idea for this fic, and my OC, Reino!**

Reino- Alteration of the name "Reina", meaning pure; clean.

**XxXxX  
**

Reino Grantz leaned over a cold, metal table, intently focused on her work. On the surface of the structure are two *vivisections of the hollow lizards collected from the outskirts of the baron deserts of Hueco Mundo (one male and one female). She is currently interested on the mating habits of these undead reptiles (Can they reproduce? Or are they only brought to life by having their souls simply appear (as such happens with the soul of a human)?). The only noise in the room is the sound of her pen scratching lightly on a page in a notebook, recording her findings and results from experimentations. As she prepares to continue with a very delicate part of her experiments, she turns back to the table with an extremely small dropper filled with highly concentrated acid, and positions it over the lizard. She is being very cautious, as the liquid is extremely dangerous, and if even the smallest drop falls from her dropper, it will burn through the table and a few feet into the floor before stopping. If any drips onto the frog in any other area than the spot she intends, then the experiment will be ruined (as the hollow creature needs to be alive for this experiment) and either she will have to catch one of the little _nuisances_ herself, or get one of her younger brother's slightly more competent fraccione to do it and wait "patiently" in the lab.

As she deems the dropper to be in the precise spot, and she is _just _about to gently squeeze on the end of the instrument when-

_*BOOM!*_

She groans as she remembers that Szayel is doing another one of his chemistry experiments in another room. She then realized quickly after that the explosion caused her to squeeze the instrument in her fingers harder than she intended to and jerk her arm diagonally. All of the contents of her dropper spilled out below her, completely dissolving her lizard, creating a large gap in the center of her table, and now created a jagged crater in the floor 4 feet deep. She scowled.

She checks for her flamboyant younger brother's reiatsu; the two of the three Grantz siblings had made a system- if something went wrong during either of their experiments, one would check for the other's reiatsu. If something went wrong and one needed help, that person would raise their reiatsu significantly, lower their reiatsu significantly, or erratically fluctuate their reiatsu, depending on the circumstances. If something noticeable happened like an explosion, then they would emit a specific combination of reiatsu levels, between low, regular, and high levels (to distinguish between that of random fluctuations). This signal would mean that nothing fatal happened, and the other could continue what they were previously doing. It is a fairly decent system. But of course it is, as Reino was the one who thought of it, after all.

'_Szayel better pray that something fatal happened during that explosion or else I am going to prove to be __**extremely **__fatal to him, making me ruin my experiment, and my floors! But then again, if something serious did happen to Szayel then I just might not help him! Making me start from scratch again, dammit!' _she grumbled in her mind. During another reiatsu check, she sensed the specific code of reiatsu fluctuations- _Low, High, Normal, High, Normal, Low._ Unfortunately for Reino, it seems that nothing is wrong with him after emitting the signal.

She is just about to call in a lower Numero who can fix the floor, when a charred, staggering Szayel opens the door to the room she is mentally griping in at the moment. She sees that, after he coughs out a puff of smoke, he notices the chunk burned out of the floor under the nearly disintegrated metal table and smirks.

"Made you slip?" He smirks.

Of course she knows that many and most of the verbal encounters of the Grantz family are composed of playfully sarcastic, snarky comments, especially when it came to pointing out the others' mistakes.

"At least it takes a near nuclear explosion to make _me_ miss. What's your excuse?"

Very fortunately to Szayel, a lesser Numero knocked politely on the door as he was about to attempt to formulate an excuse to his failure and the reason for hers.

She calls for the numero to enter, and he quietly steps in, and begins to speak.

"Excuse me, Reino Grantz, the 5th Espada requests your and Tesla's presence in the main training area. Tesla has already been notified and both are currently waiting for your arrival."

"Alright, then. Thank you." With a small hand gesture, she dismissed the small Numero. He gives a slightly awkward bow and slips out of the door, trying to get out as fast as possible (he has a decent idea of what goes on around here, as most others do), closing it behind him.

Reino walks towards the door. With her hand on the small silver knob, she turns back to her younger brother.

"Try to think of a coherent response while I'm gone, 'kay?" With a wink she turned the knob at her fingertips, pushed the door open, and entered the long corridor that would lead her to her destination under the artificial sun of Las Noches.

Nnoitora-**sama often calls for both of her and Tesla's presences during any convenient afternoons (for Nnoitora, at least) in the grounds for training to make sure neither of them got "soft". After all, he doesn't want "_weak little pussies for fraccione"._ Even though his fighting style seems brash and reckless, Reino knows that he is truly good at what he does, since his teachings have helped her improve a lot (more than she'd probably like to admit) after serving under him. She remembers becoming his fraccione very well, as if it were nearly minutes ago…

**XxXxX**

*A vivisection is the practice of subjecting living animals to cutting operations, especially in order to advance physiological and pathological knowledge (like peeling back the skin and dissecting a living creature).

****- **sama is a Japanese honorific meaning lord, or master, and is used to confer great respect.

I apologize for any mistakes in the Japanese parts (or English if you see something I missed) so if something is wrong/incorrect then please tell me, and I'll fix it.

And yes, I realize the whole clichéd "_as if it were only minutes ago"_ crap, but it was the only thing I could think of so please don't hate me for that! I promise it'll get better from this point!

Please rate and review! Thanks!

**Edit: **I realized while re-looking at this, that it might sound like the whole story is about how she became Nnoitora's fraccione. But it's not, even though the next chapter will be all about that, and _then _we'll get into the rest of the story.


	2. The Initial Collision

Chapter 2

**Warnings: **Language, EXTREME OOCness, ultimate pwnage.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters involved in this story other than my OC. If you think I own anything else then I am entitled to come to your house with a blowtorch, and you don't want to see what I can do with a blowtorch. (Example: I will light the inside of your toilet bowl on fire, and make you wonder how the hell I did it)**

**XxXxX**

_Reino was out on another morning "jog". Well not so much a jog, but endurance, agility, and stamina practice between running, sprinting, and Sonido, but the technical terms don't really matter, and jog was a lot easier for her to say. Using Sonido ate up a lot of her energy when used in a great deal like that, so after using the Arrancars' version of flash step, she leaned backwards and fell onto her back, taking a well-earned rest. Folding her hands behind her head, she indulged in a long exhale while enjoying her break. Soon, the eldest Grantz family member, IlForte, entered her field of view. She sat up so that she could call out to him._

"_Oi! IlForte! Onii-san**! She gestured for him to come over to her. "I don't usually see you around these parts at in the morning! What'cha doin'?"_

She recalls that this was around the time that she had just learned that her older brother had become Grimmjow's fraccione. At the time, she was happy for her brother for being able to find servitude under the Sexta, and she wondered if she, in the future, would find her own kind of servitude.

"_Oh, I had just been woken up early by some noises outside and decided to take a 'leisurely' stroll. I would ask you the same question, but I do know that you are on one of your infamous "morning running sprees"." _

_Suddenly, she sensed an overwhelming surge of reiatsu, and she could tell that the owner was going into a resurreccion state. _

'_So powerful even though it's so far away' she thought, noting that reiatsu's power in her mind._

_She could tell that IlForte recognized the reiatsu, and he wanted to nothing but leave and move away from the menacing spiritual pressure_

"_Damn, that's Nnoitora's reiatsu. I don't want to be anywhere near his resurreccion, and I'd advise you to do the same, Rei'. Anyway, I'll catch up with you later!" He began to run off in the direction opposite of the reiatsu._

"_Yea, I'll see 'ya!" _

_Hm, Nnoitora. He was the… 5__th__ Espada, correct? The only time Reino had ever encountered him was once when he was angrily storming the halls, screaming for his fraccione. Tesla, she recalled._

_She wanted to see him fight. After all, she's a scientist by nature, right? Scientists are naturally curious, so she wanted to observe his fighting style. Right._

_She finally stood up, and began to make her way towards the massive reiatsu. When the tall Espada came into her field of view, all she could do was stare. In his resurreccion form, he grew an extra pair of arms, producing a long scythe for each extra limb. His reiatsu was pouring off of him in bucketfuls, enough to fill an entire ocean from the World of the Living, and compared to him, her reiatsu was a mere puddle. Remembering what she came here for, she began observing him fight. There was no real pattern to his movements, and they all seemed so… in the spur of the moment, as one might say. But yet they were so powerful, so strong and effective while seemingly brash and ill-considered. Fascinating..._

_After toying with his prey for a while, he finally delivered the finishing blow. She quickly decided that she should leave, since she didn't want to be anywhere near him in that state. Maybe she could continue 'running'. After all, she was still on break. Yes, that is what she would do. _

_Quickly fleeing the scene, she trained for a few hours, and remembered that she had to finish an autopsy for Szayel. She sighed and started jogging back, though what she considered jogging, others knew it as sprinting. But, that didn't matter, because with her speed, she could do this for hours without even breaking a sweat. While heading back to the lab to continue her work, she noticed the 2 Arrancars known as Loly and Menoly sparring. She leisurely watched them while running, but was so intent on their spar that she didn't even notice the Espada that she was about to run into._

_But before she even noticed him, another person pushed him out of harm's way, and ended up stopping Reino in her tracks with a sword at her throat. _

"_Would you mind explaining yourself? First staring at my master and then nearly running over him?" He adjusted his blade at her throat, urging her to answer the question, or at least make some gesture of acknowledgement. She couldn't see the man restraining her, but she could feel him pointing daggers at her._

"_Oi! What the fuck, Tesla?!" completely ignoring her existence for the moment._

"_I deeply apologize, Nnoitora-sama." She still felt him pressuring her into responding with his blade._

"_Hey, isn't that the chick stalkin' me from when I killed that guy?" Oh no, he recognized her! She kept chanting in her mind like a mantra, this is bad, this is really, really bad!_

"_Yes, she is." He then moves closer to her ear. "Care to shed some light on the matter?"_

_She shivered when he whispered in her ear. Not the good kind, but the kind that makes one fear for their life. _

"_I… ah, ughn…. ngh," she tried to say, wincing as she attempted to form a coherent sentence with a sword at her neck and her heart racing so fast she knew they could easily hear it._

"_Che, too scared ta' even talk. Worthless little shit."_

_She took in a large gulp of air. She would not let anyone make a fool of her! An Espada no less! _

"_Your fighting style." She said with gusto, still ignoring the blade at her neck. Being able to correctly form a sentence gave her the confidence to continue._

"_I was interested. You fight recklessly, yet carefully at the same time. Though nonetheless, very strong, and I wanted to watch you and learn about it."_

_Though she realized he's probably going to kill you, she awaited his response._

"_A'right then, let's fight!"_

_Tesla stared at him in disbelief, but took the hint and finally let go of her, while she was at more than disbelief. She was in pure shock, terror, happiness, anxiety, curiosity, and indigestion all rolled into one! How in hell did his brain go from "I want to observe you" to "Let's kill each other!"? _

"_Well? Ya said that ya wanted ta' "observe me" and now ya' get ta' do it up close and personal! Ya' gonna tell me no after stalkin' me?"_

_He was right, this was the perfect opportunity to study him without risking her life __**too**__ much, so why not? '_He'll probably try to kill you for watching him earlier'_ a small voice in her head says._

_She ignored her inner pest and drew her sword, entering a fighting stance._

"_Ok then, lets fight!"_

_She Sonido'ed towards him, zigzagging from left to right, even though she could flash behind him without the foreplay, then Sonido'ed behind him and lunged at his side. He could barely react fast enough, and she cut his uniform, cutting close enough to cause just a few drops of blood to drip out his side. She quickly flashed away before he could slash at her. She moved away to a more comfortable distance, and smirked at him. She's never exactly had that much brute strength, but she's always had the best of speed on her side. That, to her, has always been more important than any kind of strength._

"_Can't keep up?_

_He glares and scowls at her. She remembered that Tesla is still watching; she glanced at him. His face was expressionless, but his eyes were full of surprise and anger for her managing to hit his master._

"_Hey, look at me when wer' fightin'!"_

_She turned back to her opponent and resumed a fighting stance, and flashed directly in front of him (without the tedious zigzag) and slashed shallowly at his chest with one of her two daggers, in a direction that forced him move away to the side. But, before he could flash away, she stabbed her sword into the junction between the neck and the shoulder, and as he moved away her sword dragged through his shoulder it hits bone, causing the wound to bleed profusely along with the shallow wound on his chest. He fell onto one knee and stared at her in anger and complete disbelief._

"_Well, I wanted to learn about you, not watch myself hit you. So are you going to attack?" She figured he should get a chance to attack before she ended the fight and returned to the lab to finish the autopsy (and have Szayel yell at her for being so late, but who really cares?). It __**is**__ bad to be cocky with an Espada, though._

_He grunted and smirked as he got up off the ground. He ran to her, and swung his sword diagonally at her. She allowed him to get dangerously close, and pretended to look surprised. She then returned to a cocky grin and quickly dodged as a position opened up for her to kick him in the side. She kicked him square in the ribs and pushed off of him with her foot, flipped in the air, and landed gracefully at good distance away from him._

"_I doesn't matter how strong you are, or may be. If you can't hit me, and can't dodge me, then, Quinta, I'm sure that I can predict the victor of this fight. Worthless little shit? I think not."_

_The only reason she could do this much damage was because she was angry at him for trying to label her as a 'worthless little shit'. Anger is a good motivator for her in battle._

_They both started running towards each other to attack, and as both of them were about to make climactic contact…_

"_You have work to do, and I find you __**playing**__ here? You hurt me so."_

_Both she and Nnoitora stopped and turned to find the owner of the voice to be none other than Reino's little brother. She started walking towards him, sheathing her dagger._

"'_Ay! I'm not done wit' you!"_

"_I've got science to do!" She waved to him over her shoulder and flashed to her brother's side._

"_Shall we?" she asked._

"_We shall."_

_With that, the Grantz duo left for the lab._

She snapped out of her reminiscent thoughts as she arrived at the training grounds where Nnoitora-sama and Tesla were waiting for her.

**XxXxX**

Kinda anti-climactic huh?

**- nii-san simply means a general/ polite way to refer to someone as your brother. Adding the "O" before it just means that he is your older brother.

And I do apologize because I know that Tesla is completely OOC but they really didn't show enough of him in the Anime to get a real feel for his personality. All I know is that he is very protective of his master, so I made him sort of violent-ish at first to fit with the scene a little better. I will tell you that eventually he does warm up to the OC, so no worries!

And anyone who got that mini Star Trek reference in the flashback gets a virtual cookie! Also, I apologize for that random string of letters in the flashback, but that was how I depicted her epic stuttering so DEAL WITH IT! I'm only kidding but I apologize if that displeased you… *_goes to cry in the corner… _Moody aren't I? *_wink*_

I am going to post a description of Reino under another story, and it'll be called "Imperfect Image OC Description", and it'll have a basic description her in her normal form and a few other things, so look put for it if you want to know.

I apologize for any mistakes in the Japanese parts so if something is wrong/incorrect then please tell me.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see ya'll again soon!


	3. The Current Time

Chapter 3

**Warnings: Language, a tiny bit of blood**

**Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any of the characters in this story. If I did then Aizen would have brutally murdered Ichigo, but only Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, Nnoitora, Szayel, IlForte, and Tesla would have survived! (Really, I wanted Aizen to win! Partially because the arrancars are so awesome, but partially because I don't like Ichigo since he would be dead **_**5,000,000**_** times over if he didn't have his inner hollow.)**

**A/N: **I really love it when I get reviews. I swear when I get an alert for a new review when I'm around my family, they look at me like I'm insane for smiling for 5 minutes straight. So right now, a big thanks to everyone who has followed, favorite, or simply liked my story so far.

Shall we begin?

**XxXxX**

She snapped out of her thoughts as she arrived at the training grounds where Nnoitora-sama and Tesla were waiting for her.

"Che, took ya long enough." Her eye twitched slightly. Every time he calls her for something, he always tells her how late she is. Even if she gets there before he does! Sometimes that man is just ridiculous.

"Whatever. What do you want us to do _today_?" she replied, stressing the 'today'. If he works his fraccione so hard like this almost every day, then by time either of them needed to use their skills, they won't be able to due to muscle exhaustion!

"Jus' spar a little or somethin'." Both of them nodded and got into a ready stance, and Tesla drew his sword.

Usually whenever the two of them sparred, Tesla would use _Verruga_ while she just used her hands. It worked for both of them because it would cause less damage to Tesla if (when) he got hit and Reino could "_play"_ with him for a little longer.

After punches were thrown, attacks were dodged, and kicks were thrust, Tesla was panting and bleeding slightly from a few wounds, while she barely broke a sweat. Though it was fun to spar with Tesla (it helps her to learn how to restrain herself at times), she wished that Nnoitora-sama could find someone with a bit more of a challenge for once in awhile. She stepped up to take look at a particularly deep wound on his face. Call it medical instinct.

"That's fine fer today. Do whatever ya want." Nnoitora walked further into the sandy training grounds.

"Come on Tes', I'll take you to the lab and take care of those cuts."

"You really don't have to do that Reino-san"

"Tesla, I just want to make sure that they don't get infected or anything, and it won't be any trouble, so let's go!"

After convincing him to come, they began to head back to the lab where she was going to take care of Tesla. While walking, she couldn't help following her train of thought from earlier, and what had happened after that fight…

_After finishing the autopsy for Szayel, she had some free time on her hands, so she had an interactive diagram of the nervous system displayed on her computer while she laid on her stomach on a cushioned table that usually used for examinations. She had moved the table slightly so it would face the screen that stretched across the entire wall. In her hand she had a touch-pad remote with a few controls to move the image on the screen around and zoom in on certain spots. She was trying to find some more pressure points that could paralyze the opponent when struck. She could zoom in on a single or grouping nerve cells and she could tell the computer to simulate what would happen when struck. Quite a useful computer, it was. _

_After scanning the diagrams for a while, she finally found a nerve pattern that piqued her interest. Zooming in, and about to begin the simulator, there was a soft knock on her door._

"_Rei'! You have a visitor!" It was Szayel. She wondered who would be here. There were very few people who would come into this wing voluntarily since the healing center was in a different section than this._

_She sighed at being interrupted just as she might have made another discovery. "Bring 'em in!" The door opened and Nnoitora appeared in the doorway. She glanced at him and closed her nerve diagram as she hopped off of her examination table._

"_Well, what a surprise to see you! What brings you here?" _

**XxXxX**

So, yea. I don't really have any excuses for why this chapter is really bad. And a sort-of cliffhanger? I don't know. This chapter in my eyes is a. I swear/hope that next chapter will be better, because it will continue the flashback, and give you a little bit of insight of how she WHOOPED NNOITORA'S ASS! Because really, just speed isn't enough to do that kind of damage on my Nnoi-chan! So I'll explain that Nnoitora isn't a completely weak pussy, so don't hurt me for making his ass get WHOOPED! (Did I mention that he got his ass whooped? Well he did.) Am I a little too excited about that?

And please review! I love when I get reviews! I promise that I will write faster if you do… pwease?

So I think that's all for now, so I'll see you again soon! (sooner if you review ;) …)

Thanks!


	4. The Important Reminder

Chapter 4

**Warnings- Language, excessive flashbacks, possible (probable) OOC**

And this- '_' with just the apostrophes means that the person is thinking it. I think I've done that a few times so far. I know that I do in this chapter, and future chapters to come.

I'm adding more and more things to Reino (in my head) so as you see I'm pretty much making things up as I go (aren't I successful?), and forgetting things. So once in a while I'll add things to the character that will be good for the plot.

Almost this entire chapter is in italics because it's the flashback. I _warned _you about excessive flashbacks, but NO! You just HAD to keep reading, huh? Well you can't turn back now, because I broke the back arrow on your web browser! HAH HAH! Anyways, ITALICS, HO!

**XxXxX**

_The door opens and Nnoitora appears in the doorway. She glances at him and closed her nerve diagram as she hops off her examination table._

"_Well, what a surprise to see you! What brings you here?" She smiles at him. Not a sincere smile, but one that is determining the best way to dissect you._

"_I want to know how ya beat me." "Pardon?" She raised a delicate brow._

"_I have the strongest hierro in Hueco Mundo. There's no way tha' you could cut me so easily without doing somethin' weird. So, what was it?" She was surprised that he could figure out that something else other than speed and strength came into effect during the battle. Well, if he wants to know so badly, then let's have a little fun with this!_

"_Alright, since you want to know, then I'll give you a few hints to the answer." He frowns at the fact that she won't tell him outright. "Let's figure it out. What things came into contact during our battle, Nnoitora?" he sighed and rolls his eyes, while she smiled out of pure amusement. _

"_Fine. It was me, you,… uh… oh! And our swords." "Very good! Now, think. What can you eliminate from that list?" "Well, ya sure as __**hell **__didn't touch me or my sword. But I wouldn't be surprised if you did some kind of creepy ass experiment on yerself." She frowns at that last part, but still continues. "Good, so far. Now, I shall tell you that I… have not, nor would I ever have, experimented on myself directly. So that leaves…?" He thinks for a short moment and then his face lit up slightly in realization."You did something to yer' sword?" She gives him a few small claps. "Correct! In a sense…" He scowls. "What the hell do ya' mean, 'in a sense'?" "A good question, Nnoitora!" she says, treating him like a child in grade school. _

'_Though he does have the intelligence of a grade student.' _

_She walks over to the large computer screen that spans across the wall, and pulls up a small slideshow. She walks over to see the pictures across the wall._

"_You see, most arrancars' resurreccion forms are based off of an animal, yes?" The screen flashes pictures of the resurreccion forms of Starrk (wolf), Hallibel (shark -Rawr!-), Ulquiorra (BATMAN!), Grimmjow (kitty, kitty!), and Nnoitora's own resurreccion (Praying mantis)._

"_But, my resurreccion is a bit different than others'. Mine __**combines**__ the powers of a leopard and the powers of thunder/lightning. Why this happens, is, surprisingly, … unknown to me."_

"_Okay then, why do I give a crap about tha'?" She sighs. "Patience, Nnoitora, patience. The electrical currents generated by the lightning portion of my resurreccion combines and reacts with the reishi in the air, and allows the blade of my Zanpakuto to slow down the vibrations of the reishi inside of your hierro, making it easier to cut through. It is similar to that of the Quincy's "Seeleschneider". In simple terms, it allows me to cut through your hierro like a knife through butter!" she replies, perhaps a little too cheerfully. "Since that answers that, any more questions, my dear Quinta?" _

"_Why are ya' not an Espada?" "Again, I beg your pardon?" he walks up closer to her. Something that very few people have the guts to actually do, by the way. _

"_You could easily kick the Sexta's or the Septima's ass and take their position. Either you haven't fer' some reason, or you're too stupid ta' notice it." _

_Now hold on just a __**damned second!**__ Nobody calls her stupid, and then gets away with it, damn it!_

"_Wow, Nnoitora! I never would have thought that you could figure all that out by yourself. Who knew?" _

_There was a reason why she wasn't an Espada. She could probably take the position of Quinta right now in the lab! But she didn't and wasn't quite comfortable sharing that reason just yet with the Quinta. _

_He knew by her flat look that she wasn't going to tell him the answer. He thinks for a second._

"_Then become my fraccione."_

"_. . .Eh?" _

_Now __**that **__caught her off guard. "Did ya' forget the entire reason why ya' watched me in th' first place?"_

"_I wanted to study the way you fight."_

"_If ya' work under me, then you could learn about th' other parts of my life, and all that shit!" "It __is__ true that the environments and the different aspects of your life could have influence of your technique .But before I give you hopes of my acception, let me ask you this. Why do __you__ want me to become your fraccione? I am very certain that you are not doing this out of the "bottom of your heart", just so that I can learn something, so I want to know __your__ true intentions __**Quinta**__."_

"_Because I want a rematch. And because I need a fraccione who doesn't suck ass in battle. I mean, Tesla's as good as servants go, but he can't hurt a damned fly." _

"_Hmm, I suppose a rematch can be arranged. Though Tesla seemed quite strong enough back there."_

"_He's jus' protective, but sucks most of the time."_

_Should she accept? She doesn't see the reason why she should. This was purely scientific curiosity, and what could being a fraccione gain her? It wasn't like she needed any more responsibility; she already has enough of that at the lab. This would take time away from her experiments, and from training. Though, she could still learn quite a bit about the Quinta through further observation and could probably whoop Nnoitora's ass on a daily basis._

"_Alright, I accept."_

"_Then, then w-"_

"_-Under the conditions that you will answer any questions I may have, and you do not ever interrupt me during my morning training times or at the lab unless it is apocalyptic and/or life-threatening. And, when I've learned everything that I'd want to know about you, I'm not going to be your fraccione anymore. In order to learn, I'll give you my service, but after that I'm done. Agreed?"_

"_Yea, fine. Whatever. I guess we should go tell Aizen. He'll have a fit if he finds out abou' this before we tell 'im." _

"_Very well."_

Once again she was whipped out of her dream lands upon arrival at the intended destination, only this time brought back to reality by the impact of her face into the door to one of her few examination rooms.

"Reino, are you all right? You were kinda spacing out for while. It looked like you were on auto-pilot."

"Huh? Oh, yea, I'm fine Tesla." She opens the door to the simple room with few pieces of equipment. This was her smaller examination room for simple things, so it has an average sized computer (compared to her few main computers that stretch all the way across the wall). "Come in, I'll fix those scratches, Tesla." He sits upright onto the long navy blue-cushioned table as she heads over to a cabinet and pulls out a few supplies, pulls up a rolling metal table next to Tesla, and puts the supplies on the table.

She opens the bottle of antiseptic. "Alright, this will sting a little at first." He nods and she applies the antiseptic. He winces slightly, but the expression fades quickly. After taking off her the ring she wears on her finger, she puts on a pair of latex gloves and opens a jar of white powder.

This powder is a creation that she had made a while back. It heals a wound, while not leaving any marks or evidence that there anything was ever there, all in just a few minutes.

She puts some powder in a small ceramic bowl and mixes it with a little bit of water, turning it into a sticky white paste. She dips her middle finger into the bowl and dabs the paste onto the wounds on his face. She then closes the jar of powder and puts everything away in the cabinet, puts the ceramic bowl in a place where Szayel's fraccione will know to clean it, and disposes of the gloves. By time she finished and checked on Tesla, the scratches were completely removed, and his face was once again flawless.

She pats him on the shoulder. "All right, Tes'! All good to go." She puts her ring back on, after having removing it to put on the plastic gloves.

"Thanks, Reino." He slides off of the table and walks to the door.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, anything."

"What is that ring for?"

She sighed, knowing that this subject would come up eventually.

"I always see you with it, and you're always subconsciously touching it. It looks special to you."

Not special. A special reminder. More important than you could ever know, Tesla.

"May I know what it is?" She looks at the floor.

"_Nothing._ Just a ring."

"Oh… all right. Uh, see you later then." He knew by her tone that the ring was more than just nothing, but had the foresight to leave the subject untouched for a while.

" 'Later."

He walks out and closes the door.

She stands in the middle of the room, still for a moment. She walks over to the nearest wall and leans her back against it, gently hitting the back of her head against the wall. She closes her eyes and slides down the wall and onto the floor while burying her head. Hugging her knees to her chest, a few stray teardrops fall down her cheeks. She looks up and holds her hand out in front of her, looking at the yin-yang encrusted ring.

"_Nothing. Just a hell."_

**XxXxX**

Dramatic ending! _Dun dun duuuuuuuun! _But that ring will play an important part in this story, so be warned! I tried to make the end as dramatic as possible, but that kinda failed as a climax.

AHHH! So much freaking dialogue in this chapter! And like, 90% of this entire story so far has been flashbacks! I hope I can actually write at the present time a little more.

I don't actually know how to take care of something medically, so any of her "procedures" will probably be very wrong. So if you see if anything is completely inaccurate, then please tell me, and if you are kind enough, tell me how it's actually done please.

Again, I am pretty much making this crap up as I go, so a few things will be changing from the original (I'm a real success, aren't I?)

Now, I'm creating… a Beta profile! Yay! So if you need a Beta and like my stories, then please PM me! I'm on essentially every single day, so it'll be done fast and as best as I can. I also love to Beta, so PM me if you have something.

Please review and I'll speak with you in the next chapter! If you have any questions that won't completely spoil the plot, then I'll be glad to answer!

Arigato minna-san!


	5. The Second Failure (and OC Description)

Chapter 5

**Warnings:** A little bit of language, violence, sadistic tendencies

**Disclaimer: **See profile

**XxXxX**

After taking care of Tesla, she continued to work on the experiment that was interrupted by Szayel this morning, after his fraccione had fetched the new hollow frogs. She continued the experiment until the wee hours of the night, only stopping for food and bathroom breaks at the non-crucial points of the project. Though she was a bit cranky from a slight lack of sleep, she was still enjoying the experiment.

Finally back up to the point where she was disturbed this morning, she holds the dropper over the lizard in the same place, containing the same liquid; she begins a countdown to when she was going to release the liquid.

'Alright!' She takes a deep breath. 'One… two…thr-'

*_KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!*_

With the same jerking of her arm from this morning, she squeezes too hard and spills the acid, _once again_, over both of the lizards, ruining her procedure for the _second _time_._ With yet another crater now forming in the floor, she was barely able to contain her blistering fury at the inability to investigate even a simple curiosity.

"Yo! Open up!"

Walking briskly towards the door, she balls her hands into fists while resisting the urge to cero down the door, in turn obliterating whoever had the nerve to show up at this ungodly hour, without even caring who it was. She reluctantly opens the door.

"Yo."

Nnoitora. That complete bastard, Nnoitora. Could he not have come _three __**milliseconds**_later?!

"_What_ do you _want?_" she says through clenched teeth.

"I was bored. Couldn't sleep."

With barely a second thought in her head, she angrily, no- furiously, Sonido'es behind him and grabs the back of his head, thoroughly slamming his face into the opposite wall, with added momentum of more Sonido. She steps back and gives him a curtsy with her coattails in mock courtesy, then calmly steps back to her previous room.

Nnoitora was probably going to _try_ to kill her in the morning, but it was _so _worth it.

After all, she did help him get to "sleep".

With a small chuckle at that thought, the young Grantz instructs Szayel's fraccione to clean up and get more lizards, and heads back the room that she used for leisure and sleep, awaiting a well-deserved rest.

**XxXxX**

A 400 word filler- all that this chapter really is, though I find it a bit amusing.

Wow. It took 5 whole chapters to reach the end of the first day (because it was muddled with five million flashbacks). The future days will probably be faster though.

For once, I don't really have much to say in this A/N, so I'll leave you now to your daily antics.

Until next chapter, which will hopefully be better. Thanks everyone!

**XxXxX**

I just want to give to give a bit of description of the Reino because I don't want to it during the story, so here goes: (not very good quality, just kind of scribbled out. Maybe I'll fix it up if I have some free time.)

Physical Description:

Eyes- Deep amethyst

Hair- Light brown with hints of blond (there's hints of blond because that's what I assume the Grantz's dominant hair color would be, along with brown. I thing Szayel's hair is pink because of some kind of chemical accident, because I can totally imagine him with brown hair! Though that really wouldn't fit his flamboyancy…). Length reaches to the small of her back. Long and flowing. Side bangs on the right side of her face, but clips the sides of her hair back, creating a sort of ring around her but a few stands are loose on her right side. Gently wavy.

Face- Hollow mark on her left cheek. The mark is dark purple and in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Height: I don't really know about an exact number, she is taller than szayel, but a tiny bit shorter than IlForte.

Hollow mask- shaped as a choker around the neck. In the middle are two front teeth and a long pair fangs reaching the collarbone.

Hollow hole- On left palm.

Uniform- Body suit stopping at the top of the breasts, legs stopping halfway down the shin with black on the edges. Zips on the side. Zippable jacket with a tall collar reaching just below the earlobes. Zipped down enough to see the top of the body suit. Splits on the lower stomach and leads in to long coattails similar to Ulquiorra's. Sleeveless. Black on the edges and on the zipper. Black, fingerless silk gloves on each hand reaching up to the wrist with white trim. Black obi used to hold sword at left hip.

Zanpakuto Description:

Call/Name- _Paji! Hakurai Hyo!_ / _Purge! White Thunder Leopard!_

Physical description- Hair lengthens to reach the back of the knees and becomes vibrant purple, with strands of neon yellow. Plates of armor cover her body from mid-calf to waistline, around her ribs (begins just below the breasts) with a strip of armor down her stomach connecting to the bottom piece, armor around the sternum/chest area leaving the collarbone exposed, around the arms, and with a separate piece around the back an breasts while leaving the cleavage and in-between the breasts exposed. On each exposed hip bone is the lightning-shaped hollow mark originally on her left cheek. Tail appears and ears elongate. Nose changes and becomes pink and more feline-like. Feline fangs and sharper claw-like nails appear. Small silver circlet around forehead with yin yang symbol on the forehead.

**XxXxX**

So I'll add anything else that I come across, or anything else that you guys want to know.


	6. The Love's Preamble

Chapter 6

**Warnings:** Quite a bit of language, blood, fighting, injuries.

**Disclaimer:** See profile

**Note-** Once in a while, I'll have the Grantz's interact in what I call "Itanglish" (Italian/English. Get it? Like Spanglish, but, with… Italian- you know what, just forget it) so I'll translate it at the bottom with the Japanese (if there is any for the specific chapter). I wanted them to have some kind of separate language, and I chose Italian because IlForte means the strong one. Some of it will be correct from my own (limited) knowledge, but some of it comes from Google translate, so I'm not sure about it. Some things I tried to have them say in Italian, but I knew that the Google translation was wrong or I wasn't sure about, so I couldn't do that.

**XxXxX**

Reino Grantz wakes up at the sounds of loud bangs and yells of fighting out her window in the baron sands of the training grounds. Groaning, she sits up in her bed and checks the time on bedside clock.

_3:27 A.M._

Much too early for anyone to be fighting like that outside, or even awake for that matter. She was ready to go up to her window and scream _'Shut the fuck up!'_, but upon seeing that the participants of the fight are the 4th and 6th Espada, Ulquiorra-sama and Grimmjow-sama, she decided against it, seeing as she didn't need more than one Espada on her back; Nnoitora was enough. It wouldn't do good to be in any kind of trouble, as that would take time away from her sciences. She couldn't possibly miss any opportunities to finish her lizard reproduction experiment without a crater forming in the tiled floor of her section of her *otouto's laboratory.

She yawns. Maybe some caffeine would wake her up for a bit, because it didn't look they were going to stop for a while, which in turn meant she wasn't getting anymore sleep unless she slept in one of the examination rooms. The only problem with that was that those tables were hard as damned _rocks_.

She goes over to her small closet and retrieves one set of her daily clothing. She strips off her sleep-wear, which consisted of a plain black tank top and fuzzy dark purple pants, and puts on her black and white uniform. She decides to only put on the bottom layer for now, since she was only going to get a drink from the kitchen, and there was most likely going to be no one around to see her anyways (no point in a jacket just for that).

Another loud bang sounds, and she decides to see what exactly they were doing. Perhaps this would be a good time to see their fighting styles. Some good intended observations. Nothing wrong with that, right? After all, they had waked her up after getting only about 2 hours of sleep.

Walking up to the skinny but long window, she pulls back the thick, black velvet curtain just enough to poke her head through to take a peek at the ongoing action.

The Cuarta was mainly stationary in one spot, without a single scratch or rip in his uniform. The Sexta was in his resurreccion state, resembling a panther. He was full of scratches, and covered with blood. He was panting, and heavily hunched over, but still in a fighting stance. He began running up to the 4th and went to claw at his chest. The maneuver was dodged effortlessly, and 6th received a blow to his side. An array of punches were thrown at the stoic Espada, but he just moved his head out of the way at each one, not bothering to attack back. The blue-haired man started getting frustrated, and went for a quick hit to his ribs. The move was blocked without a second thought from the Cuarta, and he landed a strike on the larger man's chest. They both skidded away from the force of the blow.

He looked intriguing. Drenched in sweat, his beautiful blue hair matted with blood, he was _mesmerizing_.

This continued for a few minutes. She could see her large, deep amethyst eyes reflecting off of the glass of the window as she watched the battle between the two Espada.

As Grimmjow went in for another hit, he saw Reino, and the two of them locked eyes for a short moment, but their gazes were cut off by Ulquiorra getting him square in the jaw with his fist. The 6th flew back about 10 feet and landed on his back.

"You are useless, trash. We are finished here."

He looked back to see what the Sexta was distracted by, and spotted her. She met his eyes for half a second, and then jumped back from his chilling gaze. Startled, she leaned against the wall, her heart racing. But her heart wasn't pounding just from how the Cuarta's scared the crap out of her. No, it was because of the way the Sexta looked. There aren't _words_ to express how... _attractive _he looked just then.

She shook the thought out of her head. It didn't matter; she was probably just tired. Yea, that was it. Just very tired.

She gathers herself and leaves her quarters to make her way to the kitchen.

The kitchen was only used by the Espada and their fraccione. The numeros had their own separate kitchen; it was one of the few perks of being Nnoitora's fraccione, seeing as the food in the numeros' kitchen was _disgusting_. Before she had met the Quinta, she would rather eat the hollow lizards in her lab than _any_ of the food in there. The bread was basically wheat paste, only as hard as steel. She shuddered at the disturbing thoughts of what she previously had to endure. The Espada kitchen was much better; the food was very luxurious, and there was a large selection of beverages, many of them from the human world. Many arrancars were fascinated by human food, so that was what the majority of the kitchen was filled with.

She arrived at the large silver doors that led to the kitchen and reached up to rub her eyes and yawn. She opens the door and upon entering, she could feel another presence in the room. She opens her eyes to see who it is.

'_G-Grimmjow-sama!' _

He was leaning up against one of the counters with an unopened can of Sprite™.

"**O-Ohayou gozaimasu, Grimmjow-sama," she says with a small nod. He gives her small, slightly derisive and condescending glance, and goes back to thinking about something. Walking up to one of the many refrigerators, about to open it to get a can of Dr. Pepper™, she noticed all of his wounds. They looked much worse up close than they did through the window.

She quickly walked up to him to grab his free arm, and inspect the damage. Most of it was covered with blood. She then moved to his chest, and then his abdomen. When she moved up to look at a particularly deep cut on his face, he finally decided to ask the question.

"'The hell are you doin'?"

She had barely realized what she was doing until he pointed it out. Sometimes, her inner scientist and healer took over her mind in situations like this.

"Hm? O-Oh! Uh, S-S-Sorry. I just wanted to make sure that those would heal alright." She blushed in embarrassment and took a step back.

"Whatever." He goes to open his can. She speculates that the only reason that he didn't beat the crap out of her is because he either doesn't care enough to do so, he's tired in the morning, or (though very unlikely for him to admit) he's weaker from the fight.

"Ow! Shit!" He shakes his hand as she can see blood dripping from his thumb. She grabs a paper towel and dampens it slightly at the sink, then presses it to his hand. She holds it there for a moment to soak up the blood, and then takes it away to view the damage.

"Damn…" He nicked the artery, and it was heavily bleeding. He looked at her questioningly. "Arterial cut."

She generates a bit of spit in her mouth, then spits onto her finger and rubs it into the cut artery.

"Whoa! What the hell are you doin' spitting on my hand?"

"A female arrancar's saliva, though weak, has slight healing abilities. This should keep it from bleeding too much." Even with her saliva, that wouldn't be enough to stop the bleeding before passes out from eventual blood loss.

"Would you please come with me? I need to fix that before it bleeds too much."

"Hell no. I think I'll survive a damned _scratch._" Well, if he didn't want to come, then she'll just have to make him to come by injuring the thing that would hurt the most- his pride.

"Grimmjow-sama, if you do not let me fix that, you will pass out from blood loss right here on the kitchen floor. When the others come in here, what will they think when the find you unconsciously sprawled on the ground, see blood on your drink, and realize that you were struck down by an _aluminum can_? I wonder what kind of ridicule you'd get from Nnoitora." She looks up at him and raises an eyebrow; he scowled at the thought of it.

"Fine, whatever."

He puts down his drink. She nods, grabs his arm, and flashes both of them to the entrance to the maze that is the Grantz's lab. She begins to lead him to the proper examination room; the examination rooms were usually close to the entrance, the reason being that most people wouldn't _dare_ go deep into the barracks of the lab.

"So did I hear you call him_ just_ Nnoitora?"

"Yes, Grimmjow-sama."

"So then you must be that new fraccione he was ramblin' about." She wasn't aware that he would have taken the time to mention her presence.

"So he told you about me? I'm surprised."

"Not much. All he said was that you did some kind of freaky science shit, give him pretty much no respect, but kick ass."

So she kicks ass, huh?

"But anyways, isn't this that creep Szayel's lab?"In a sense, yes.

"Did Szayel or your fraccione IlForte ever tell you that they had a sister?" His eyes widened slightly at the revelation.

"Oh, fucking wonderful. We all needed _another _creepy-ass scientist in our lives."

"Now, now, Grimmjow-sama. Most of my work is healing as a medic."

She arrived at the door to the designated room, opened the door, and they both step in. The room was the almost the same as she took care of Tesla in. A cushioned navy blue table and cabinets filled with equipment. The main difference from that room is that this one has more sophisticated equipment, and has a few different monitors. She pats the table, gesturing for him to sit on it while she got a few things that would be needed. She could already see that he was quite a bit paler and more tired, though he wouldn't admit to that. For the moment, since she didn't want to waste any time, Reino just got out the suture kit.

When she pulled out the needle, he didn't object seeing as he was a bit too weak to do so. She asked him to take off his jacket; he did, and she quickly threaded the wound, finishing it off with a fancy knot. He lost a lot of blood, so she decided to get him an IV of fluids. She got a pouch of fluids and the equipment required for the IV. She put the needle into the back of his hand and put tape on it to keep it in place. She released the stopper and the liquid flows freely into his body. After the IV was properly set up and flowing, she takes out a small washcloth and her jar of white healing powder. She goes over to a faucet and wets the cloth. She then goes over to Grimmjow and start wiping the blood off of his body from his previous fight.

The cloth quickly became stained with blood as most of the water and dried blood drips down onto the table. After finishing his arms, she starts working on his chest and stomach, which had taken the most damage. She blushed slightly at the thought of being so close to an Espada like Grimmjow's chest like this, cleaning him and tending to his wounds. Not to mention how his handsome features were more apparent up close like this. He seemed to notice the faint dusting of pink across her cheeks, and gave a low chuckle, which only made her blush harder. She forced the blush down and tried to focus as she moved up to his face and cleaned away more of the crusted blood, dirt, and sand. Again, she noticed how her face was so close to his as she determined the severity of that deep cut on his forehead.

'_That'll need stitches as well.'_

She pulls a clean needle of the kit again, and repeats the procedure as she did to his thumb for the wound on his face. He didn't appear too pleased to have stitches on his face, but didn't say anything against it. She finished it off in the same fashion, and then put away the needle and the suture kit, seeing that he wouldn't need any more stitches. He looked significantly better, though there was still a little bit of fresh blood dripping out of the cuts.

Putting the cloth down, she went to get a small ceramic bowl and a pair of latex gloves. After retrieving the items, she got to work and opened the jar of powder. She put a very generous amount in the small dish and mixed it with water. After turning it to the paste, she headed back over to Grimmjow who was waiting on the now blood-stained table patiently. She dipped her gloved middle finger in the paste and brought it up to rub it into his wounds.

"Hold it. What the hell _is_ that crap?"

"This paste is made to make wounds heal faster without leaving any kinds of scars. It can also be used to lighten old scars, but I use it primarily to heal shallow cuts and scratches like yours. I keep it in a powder form so that it's easier to store and stays fresher longer." He leaned away from her finger.

"What's wrong? Afraid it's going to hurt?"

"Che. As if."

He lets her apply it to the wounds and cuts on his face, arms, and chest. By time she got to his arms, the majority of his face was already healed.

Unable to stand any more silence, she tried to start up a conversation.

"So, may I ask why were you fighting with Ulquiorra-sama?" He appeared in deep thought for a short moment.

"Because I'll beat him. One day. I don't care how long it takes, or if it kills me, which it probably will, I'll win. That's all there is to it."

She can feel the vibrations of his vocal cords while putting the paste onto the cut on his neck as he speaks.

"Why do you want to beat him so much?"

"Because he looks down on me. Just because I'm a lower rank, he constantly calls me trash. And I swear I'll crush every last person who looks down on me."

'_Wow… For someone who seems so vulgar, he sounds so profound. He actually has a reason for fighting, unlike Nnoitora. Nnoitora fights because of instinct; Grimmjow is definitely worthy of the title of Espada.'_

She smiles and gives a small chuckle.

His eyes narrow. "The fuck are you laughin' at?"

"If you have that much determination, then I'm sure you'll win. Fighting isn't about strength, or power. It's about motive, and determination. If you believe that strongly that you'll kill him, then I'll believe in you." She gave him a sincere smile.

She finished putting the paste on his body; she put the small ceramic bowl in the sink to be washed later, and disposed of her gloves. He makes a move to get up.

"Hold on, not just yet. There's one more thing I'd like to do." She gets out a small bottle of what resembles grease and puts on a fresh pair of gloves. She unscrews the cap, and applies some of it onto her thumb and walks towards him.

"This, I use for the deeper cuts. It works better than the paste, and is also made to help stitches dissolve faster." She grabs his hand and starts rubbing it into the wound on his thumb.

'_Even his hands are so muscular.'_ She put the oily substance onto his cheek, while closely inspecting it to make sure the stitches were done correctly. Even though she near always executes medical procedures perfectly, it never hurts to check. Besides, with how nervous she's been, there's no telling how bad she could have messed it up.

"Alright! I think that should do it." She peels off her gloves and disposes of them. "So with the help of this," she gestures to the jar of grease, "the stitches should dissolve and the cuts should heal between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the severity of the wound. Yours, I would estimate… 40 minutes to fully heal. Just let me take the IV off." She slowly peels the tape off of the back off his hand and pulls the needle out, setting it aside.

He slides off the table and onto his feet. "Cool."

Just before he opens the door, the young Grantz stops him.

"Now hold on a minute, Grimmjow-sama. What do you say when someone does something nice for you?" She doesn't care how high-ranked or *cough* hot he is. It is unacceptable for people to take up over 30 minutes of her time to heal them and not say a simple _thank you_.

"Thanks." He spits out. He then opens the door. She started putting everything away as he finally walked out of the room. As soon as he closed the door behind him, she put down the ceramic bowl that she was cleaning, slid down the wall, and sat on the ground with her hands cupping her mouth as she took deep breaths and closed her eyes.

This couldn't be an attraction, right? Absolutely not; she is a lady of science! Things as illogical as love do _not_ occur. She could not afford to be distracted by things like this. No. This isn't that sort of thing. Her instincts were kicking in as she was healing him, and since she was touching him, it was only natural, right? It was just the adrenaline, or, hormones, or… something!

All of her medical knowledge just momentarily went down the drain as the memory of those stunningly blue eyes crept back up into her brain. She runs both of her hands through her hair and latched on to the locks at the back of her head, tugging at the follicles.

This feeling would just go away in time. After all, she never really gets any contact with any of the Espada. Even though you are a fraccione, Nnoitora usually sent Tesla to do anything that involved any Espada; she does most of the other menial jobs. If she doesn't see him, she'll just forget the feeling in time. Of course, this won't amount to anything more than a petty little crush. Absolutely nothing more than that.

After feeling calm enough to get back into action, she stood up and looked at the time on the clock.

_4:11 A.M._

She sends a message to Szayel's fraccione over a communication system created for the lab to tell them to clean up the mess; she isn't exactly in the mood to deal with it now. She decides to go back to her quarters to get her jacket, which is part of her full uniform, and start her daily run, but she realizes as she went through the door-

She never did get that Dr. Pepper™.

Well that just wouldn't do. Whenever Reino sets her mind to something, she always follows through with it, no matter how feeble the idea. She heads back to her room to get properly dressed and fix her hair with the small clips at the sides, and headed to the kitchen once more to retrieve what she never did.

After a few minutes of walking down the same that same path that she did earlier, she once again opens the large heavy doors. Luckily, this time, there was no one there. She goes to the fridge and pulls out a can of soda. She sees the emptiness of the large table in the middle of the room, and decides to sit down while she sips her drink. The idle activities forced Reino's mind back to Grimmjow. What could happen from here? Maybe the feeling would just go away in time… maybe.

The door suddenly opens, snapping her out of her thoughts. Looking up to see who it is, she sees her older brother, IlForte.

"Hey, Rei'. I know that you have Szayel have screwed up sleep patterns, but what are you doing sitting in here?"

"Hey, 'Forte. I got woken up, now I'm thinking about something, and its making me feel all depressed and conflicted. Sono infastidito (1)." she says with a sullen tone.

"Something go wrong in the lab?"

"No, no. Nothing like that." She let out a small sigh and propped her head up on her hand.

"I wonder what it could be then…" He thinks for a minute to consider wrong could be wrong. He suddenly wears a wide, mischievous grin on his face. She eyes him carefully, curious of his thoughts.

"Un ragazzo! (2)" She suddenly chokes on the sip of soda in her mouth.

"Merda (3), IlForte! N-No! It's, not… like that. A-Absolutely not…" She crosses her arms and pouts slightly as her gaze becomes downcast and she crosses her legs defiantly.

"It is! You _definitely_ have a crush on someone. Well? Who is it? Spill!" She swears, IlForte is the biggest gossip in this entire damned palace.

"IlForte, get this straight. Uno (one) - I'm not even sure if I like him or not. Non lo so (4)! Due (two) - There is absolutely _no way in hell_ I am telling you who I _might_ be _slightly _attracted to. Tre (three) - you are not going to say a word about _anything _that I have said. If you say even a _word_ to anyone that I _might_ like someone, I swear IlForte, so help me Aizen, I will shave half of your head and dye the remaining hair puke green! With extremely permanent dye!"

"Whoa there, baby sis! No need for shaving!" IlForte put his hands up in defense.

"E non sono la bambina! (5)" she said, scowling.

"Whatever you say, baby sis." He pats her head playfully as she glared at him.

She raised her can once again, only to find it to be empty; she crushes it in her hand and chucks it into the garbage can. After having a healthy dose of caffeine, she felt invigorated and refreshed enough to begin running.

"I'm gonna go now. See you later 'Forte."

"A presto. (6)"

**XxXxX**

Yay, long chapter! Banzai!

*Otouto- Little brother

**Ohayou gozaimasu- A formal way of saying good morning

(1) Sono infastidito- I am annoyed

(2) Un ragazzo! – A boy!

(3)Merda, IlForte! - Shit/Crap, IlForte!

(4) Non lo so! - I do not know!

(5) E non sono la bambina! – And I am not a baby!

(6) A presto- See you soon

Yay pairing! Grimmjow x bilingual OC! Was it too obvious? I think maybe it was… oh well! And I honestly have no idea why I made the Grantz's Italian. Please don't ask me why, because I can give no possible answer other than IlForte's name.

So, I don't really have much to say, other than to please REVIEW! Tell me how badly I am failing at my first full-length story! Please? I'll give you an internet cookie if you review ^_^


	7. Why, Mother?

Author's Note!

Wow, I feel like an ass. I completely went AWOL, so I apologize for that. It was only because my AP summer project sucks up so much of my time that I almost completely forgot about everything I was writing (along with the mother of all writer's blocks). So, unfortunately, I won't be able to update again until about a month from now (once school starts). Again, I apologize for that, and especially those who have been following this story. But, if you want to see more of my work in my absence, you could check out my story "Apron", which is a GrimmUlqui yaoi oneshot that I might turn into a twoshot, and it's also my highest ranking story by far, so check it out if you'd like.

But… Surprise! I was almost done with this when I dropped off the face of the Earth, so I decided to bust my butt and finish it to make it up to my bishies! So, in hopes that you'll forgive me, I present to you Chapter 7!

**XxXxX**

Chapter 7

**Warnings:** Quite a bit of angst, insults, back story glimpse

**Disclaimer:** See profile

Yay! Super-angsty chapter! And more flashbacks! Woo. I like this chapter because it has a lot of plot development.

**XxXxX**

After yet another morning of running, Reino's mind felt much clearer. The vigorous work and blissful aching of her muscles helped rid her brain of any issues. Now, after her "morning marathon," she decided that it would be nice to wind down with a good book. Often times she would ask Szayel to go to the world of the living and pick up a few interesting novels, or she would just borrow some of the books that he got for himself. Books from the human world are very fascinating. The way that the primitive human mind (in comparison to that of an arrancar's) could make up such works of fictions that are so interesting, it's mesmerizing. Some human writers even wrote well enough to make one feel like they were being plunged into an entirely new world.

After starting to walk back to the lab, she finally noticed how disgusting she looked. Dirt and sand stuck to the sheen of sweat on her body as grime nearly coated her face and sleeveless arms. Before reading, she'll probably clean up. Maybe it would be nice to read book while in a relaxing warm bath. Yes, that would be very nice.

While in one of the hallways that would eventually lead her to the lab, things seemed eerily quiet. For once things were actually somewhat peaceful. Too bad that wouldn't last for long.

"Hey, kitty-cat. Wanna play a little?" A confident but feminine voice sounded behind the scientist. She slightly turns around, only enough to barely acknowledge the identity of the voice. It belongs to Loly, while Menoly stands beside her. Sometimes the pair would show up and verbally abuse her, trying to get a rise out of her. Most of the time, though, that ultimately failed, as she simply ignored them.

"Well, good morning, Loly, Menoly. A _pleasure_ to see you as always," she said sarcastically. She turned her back to them and began to walk away from the pair. As soon as she started to leave, she heard the two pairs of feet following her.

"Oh, look Loly. She's so filthy!"

"Well of course, so befitting of a dirty rat so like herself. I bet your parents just left you on the streets when you were a child because you were so disgusting!"

That comment made Reino stop walking.

"_Get out! You __**disgusting rat**__!"_

_A young girl was abruptly shoved out the door of her western house. Her mother threw an apple at the girl's head._

"_And don't even think about __**ever**__ coming back!" _

"I'd suggest you watch your mouth, Loly."

"Oh, did I strike a nerve?" she said in mock concern. "*Gomenasai! I should have known how sensitive dirty street rats are! I bet your brothers didn't even bother to come after you after you got thrown onto the streets!" She scoffed loudly.

_The girl's brothers were trying to push their way through the door frame, but were too small and weak to get past her mother as the apple hit her forehead, creating a faint red mark. She timidly looked down at the small apple._

"_Perche, madre (1)?"_

"_(2)Fai schifo! You don't even __**deserve**__ to be told all the things you've done wrong!" the mother of small girl yelled._

_She slowly turned to the faint dirt road and began walking, still able hear her brothers' last efforts to get through the door. _

_The frail voice of her younger brother screamed out her name. He was crying, but still fighting, while her older brother was still staying strong, but his face was desperate and looked like he wanted to cry._

Her body and mind were slightly trembling from rage and anger. Most of the time she could ignore these feeble attempts at irritation, but if they started to bring _them _into this, hell was going to be raised.

"Such a shame that they must have abandoned you onto the dirty streets!"

In that very moment, Reino snapped.

She instantly Sonido'ed over to her and punched Loly square in the jaw. She skidded back a few feet, eventually landing on the ground.

"You little bitch!" Loly yelled. She got up off the floor and pulled her Zanpakuto out of its sheath. Running up to Reino, ready to attack, the Grantz raised a single dagger to block her strike. They both locked eyes for a moment; Loly sees that Reino's are filled to the brim with unmerciful fury, but also another emotion-

Regret.

_If mother didn't want you, then you had no right to stay. You would leave. Run far away. You knew your brothers would probably try to sneak out to find you. You would go to a place where they couldn't. If they saw you, they would try to bring you back home and get scolded harshly by mother. Not only that, but it would be such a painful reminder of the life and family you now have to leave behind._

She used Sonido on just her arm to pull her other dagger and stab the shorter girl in her side. Loly yelled out in pain as the tip of Reino's small blade fractured her lowermost rib and she gets kneed in her abdomen, sending her flying back from the extra power added by Reino's rage and back onto the cold tiled floor. As she lands, she coughs as some blood sputters out of her mouth. The Grantz calmly walked over to her and looked down at her with cruel pity. She raised her foot and aimed her heel at Loly's sternum. She was about to slam her foot down and cause a large amount of internal damage, when a sly voice sounded.

"Now, now, girls. Is there a problem? I'm sure tha' Aizen-sama would be gettin' upset if ya went killin' each other, ne?"

Ichimaru-sama was leaning on the wall just a few feet away.

Reino moved her foot back to the ground and took a small step away from Loly. This whole time Menoly was watching the scene unfold from a safe distance.

"No, Ichimaru-sama, there is no problem here." She put both of your daggers back into their holsters. She began to walk down the hallway on her original route, when she stopped for just a moment. She shot Loly a hateful glare. If looks could kill, then she would have spontaneously combusted by now.

"And I'm sure that Aizen-sama wouldn't lift a finger for the likes of _that._" She continued her trek down the hallway at a brisk pace, as your coattails swayed gently behind her.

After walking a distance away from the group, you slow down a bit. Some things were just too painful to think about, but memories of your human life began to rape your thoughts.

-  
_The 1800's in Rome, Italy. There was a war currently occurring. Sickness and unsanitation began to run rampant, so young Reino and her clean mother, healthy father, and 2 loving brothers left to follow the trend of people going to America. IlForte was 12 at the time, she was 9, and Szayel was 7. _

_In America, the area was much more rural. At the time, winter had just passed. Her family owned a small plantation that had a few crops. It was tended by her father, IlForte, and Szayel, while she and her mother did the cooking, cleaning, and other house chores._

_But don't get the wrong idea. Just because she helped her mother with those things, didn't mean she was good at them. She often times burned food, sewed clothes incorrectly, and left dirt stains while cleaning; Reino simply wasn't meant to be a housewife. But her mother was usually a patient woman. She would stay calm, help her with whatever she did wrong, and show her how to do it properly._

_Things started out well, but after winter passed, things started to fall apart. The crops were dead, there was barely enough food for the winter, and nearly no money to buy food from the small organized town market place over a mile away. Her father developed pneumonia in both his lungs from the insufficient heating and insulation, and eventually died, leaving his sons to tend to the fields in the autumn and IlForte as the man of the house. The stress of losing her husband turned mother into an alcoholic, using the little money they had so she could buy alcohol. Now, whenever Reino did something poorly, mother would get mad and throw tantrums. She would often times hit the young girl and send her to bed with no supper, which mother usually ended up making for herself and her brothers. During her tantrums, if Szayel was in the room, IlForte would lead the little boy away from mother, trying to shield him from the hard truth. At supper when she was sent away, IlForte usually tried to sneak something like a small piece of bread from the table and give it to his sister later. Then, he would often try to comfort her in his arms. She told herself constantly that she wouldn't cry after father died, but she was always weakest in her older brother's arms. She tried to be strong, especially for little Szayel, but it was too hard when around IlForte, who could always tell when something was wrong with her._

_Around mid-fall, was when things truly boiled over. Reino was taking another attempt at cooking supper, and things seemed to be going well, until the flame suddenly rose and nearly caught the whole kitchen on fire. Mother and her brothers rushed into the room as mother put the flames out before they spread too far. After everything settled down, her mother looked very angry with Reino; she could tell that she had quite a bit to drink before. She calmly put her hand on her daughter's back as she lead her to the front of their small home, opened the door, and abruptly shoved he through it. She looked up at her, confused._

"_Get out! You __**disgusting rat**__!"_

_She was abruptly shoved out the door of her family's western house. Her mother threw an apple at her head._

"_And don't even think about ever coming back!" _

_Her brothers were trying to push their way through the door frame, but were too small and weak to get past their mother as the apple hit Reino's forehead, creating a faint red mark. She quietly looked down at the small apple._

"_Perch__è__, madre?"_

"_Fai schifo! You don't __**deserve**__ to be told all the things you've done wrong!" She yelled._

_She slowly and quietly turned to the faint dirt road and began walking. She could still hear her brothers' last efforts to get through the door. _

"_Rei-nee!" the frail voice of her younger brother screamed. He was crying but still fighting, while IlForte was still staying strong, but his face seemed desperate and looked like he wanted to cry._

_She began to walk down the dirt trail, leaving the apple on the ground._

_If mother didn't want her, then she had no right to stay. She would leave. Go far away. She that knew her brothers would probably try to sneak out to find their sister. She would go to a place where they couldn't. If they saw her, they would try to bring her back home. She could never imagine saying no to them, especially little Szayel in his innocent and frail young voice, and they would get scolded harshly by mother. Not only that, but it would be such a painful reminder of the life and family she now have to leave behind._

She didn't notice that she arrived at the lab until she distractedly ran straight into the large double doors. She opened the left door slowly and stepped through. A little distressed from her mind's replay of her past, she idly traveled the halls of her section of the lab, nearly forgetting why she came here in the first place. Then, Reino felt a presence in her main computer room, and peeked through the door to see who it was.

She saw IlForte staring intensely at one of her anatomy books, trying to understand what most of it means (not knowing that it was upside-down). He looked up from his intense thinking and saw his little sister in the doorway. He smiled and stood up.

"Hey, Rei'."

Without greeting him or changing her expression, she calmly walked over and hugged him. After only a few seconds she began to gently sob into his chest. He held and comforted her the way that he did when they were little.

"Did something happen? What's wrong?" he says in a soothing voice. She nodded, but didn't give him answer. After a while she said only one thing-

"Please, never leave me again IlForte."

Knowing exactly what she meant, he closed his eyes and hugged his sister tighter.

"Never again. I got you back once, and I'm _never_ going to let you go again, Reino."

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Yay for drama! How did IlForte get her back once? What was the rest of their childhood like? All will be answered in the future! There's definitely going to be a _lot _more of her back story, so be sure to look out for that!

Please review, because it makes me very happy and it makes me feel appreciated!

*Gomenasai- I'm very sorry (I imagined her saying this the way that see did to Orihime in the anime. Did you too?)

(1)Perche, madre? - Why, mother?

(2)Fai schifo- You are so disgusting! (This is an extremely Italian phrase)


	8. The Asshole

Chapter 8

WARNINGS AND CRAP blah blah blah, GO!

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After the whole scene, Reino noticed how she was still pretty sweaty. She headed back to her room, and took a quick shower. She came back out of the bathroom in only a towel, and picked up a book that she had been reading about the psychology of humans. She didn't have much to do today, so she could take some leisure time and not bother to change into her uniform while sitting on her bed in only a fluffy white towel and flipping to the page she was previously on in her book.

Relaxed, she was about to turn to the next page. That, as always, it seemed, never lasted for long.

She heard a large bang and jumped up, fixing her towel tighter around her chest. After the cloud of dust settled, the Grantz found her door completely ripped off of its hinges and now on the floor, with the Sexta Espada accompanying it there.

He looked at Reino, still on the floor; she looked at him, still keeping the towel secure with her hand. The stare-down continued for a decent minute, until he spoke.

"Oh, it's you."

"Last time I checked, yes."

Another minute of intense staring passed, until Reino decided it was her turn to instigate some kind of conversation.

"So, is there a… particular reason as to why you're on my carpet, along with my door?"

At that moment, Nnoitora finally decided to step into the room.

"Che, fucking bastard. Hey, you know I've never actually been in yer' room before." He looked around the now door-less room.

She stared at him now with a death glare, and after a few seconds, did nothing but point to the door frame.

"Get. Out. _Now._"

"Come on now, no need to get all pissy!"

"There is all the need. Now leave, _Nnoitora. Later_, you _will _explain to me why you are standing here at the moment."

He thought for a moment, and then a mischievous grin appeared on his face, but quickly faded into an expression of impatient anger, similar to hers. He then pointed to the door in the same fashion that she was at the moment.

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he did the same.

"You are looking like, and acting like a child."/ "You are looking like, and acting like a child."

So this was how he wanted to play, huh?

She put her hands on her hips, and shook her head in disappointment; he did the same. At this point, Grimmjow was merely sitting upright on the floor, watching the entire scene unfold with an intrigued expression.

They both sighed and walked up to each other, stopping with only an inch of space between them.

'_How the hell can he copy me so precisely?' _

Reino quickly kneed him in the crotch, with enough force to send him through the empty door frame and slam him into the adjacent wall.

"Have fun copying that, asshole."

Her attention then turned back to the blue-haired Espada on the ground, but quickly turned to the towel serving as the only cover for her body. She felt a blush creeping up, but forced it down.

"A-A moment please."

She used Sonido to get a uniform out of her closet, go into the bathroom, change, put the towel away, and quickly brush out your hair within the span of about seven seconds. She appeared back in front of him before he could barely register that she left.

Not sure of what to say to an Espada, they awkwardly stood there in silence until Grimmjow decided to break it.

"Do you want to go spar or somethin'?"

"Huh?"

"If you can do that much damage to Nnoitora so easily, then I want to see how strong you are in battle."

"O-Oh, alright then. Just hold on for one second."

She walked over to a small panel on the wall, and quickly sent a message to Szayel's fraccione to fix the door over the, recently named, GFMS- Grantz-Fraccione Messaging System.

She turned back to the Sexta and followed him out the door, completely ignoring the book still lying open on the bed.

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Yes, I realize I am an absolute facker. I give a whole damn rant about not being able to update for the next month, then update, what, barely a week later? Well, I know for sure that it'll be a bit longer for the next chapter because I'm sure it'll be a long one.

Anyways, even though this chapter was short, I liked it because it was amusing. And it ended with a good little cliffhanger for everyone :P.

Review. Please? My muse can only feed on reviews, so please don't let her starve to death!

See y'all probably in September.


	9. DISCONTINUATION

Hey, everyone… heh-heh…

Sorry I haven't updated, but I've spent a lot of time thinking. I've decided to put this story on an official hiatus. I'm not really feeling inspiration for this, nor do I really enjoy writing for this plot anymore. I'm kinda tired of writing OC stories. I extremely appreciate all of you reading this story thus far, but I really can't write it anymore. I tried thinking about taking it in a slightly different direction than planned, but I'm really just not feeling it anymore.

If anyone wants to continue this for me, or if you just want to know where I was going to take this story, you can feel free PM me and I'll get back to you.

If I ever feel like writing this, maybe I'll take it up again, but for now I'm discontinuing it. Still, thank you again for reading Imperfect Image, and I'm sorry I have to stop it.

FOR ALL WHO FOLLOW ANY OF MY OTHER STORIES:

I'm mostly going to be doing GrimmUlqui now, even though I feel like this fandom has been dying. I'm still going to write Truth or Dare, even though it kind of goes hand-in-hand with this I.I. and was actually originally meant to be a part of this.

Thank you for reading this, and I apologize to anyone who is disappointed. Have a nice day!


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